The Italian airline reported in January 2019 the fourteenth consecutive month of growth, with a 4 percent increase in passenger revenues, compared to January 2018.

The growth was achieved without aircraft fleet expansion and was in particular driven by the excellent performance in the international and intercontinental sectors.

In January 2019, passenger revenues of long-haul services increased by 6 per cent compared to the previous year and now represent 48 percent of total passenger revenues, a value never achieved in the last 5 years.

Number of passengers carried on long-haul flights also continues the growth trend: in January 2019, Alitalia carried 197,380 travelers on its intercontinental services with a 2.3 percent increase compared to the same month of the previous year.

Jet Airways on November 5, 2018 commenced its new nonstop service between Mumbai and Manchester, further expanding the airline’s connectivity in the United Kingdom (UK).

This new service is the first nonstop service connecting India, via its economic capital with Manchester, the third largest city in the United Kingdom.

Jet Airways is now the largest carrier between Mumbai and the UK and Manchester, the 21st international destination on the carrier’s network.

Ahead of the launch of its inaugural service from Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Jet Airways conducted a multi-faith prayer followed by a ceremonial lamp lighting ceremony to mark the occasion of its maiden Mumbai – Manchester flight.

This inaugural function was led by Mr Raj Sivakumar – Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Sales & Distribution, Jet Airways; Mr. Tom Mottershead, Deputy Director for Trade and Innovation, British Deputy High Commission; dignitaries and invitees from airport (MIAL) graced the occasion. The lamp – lighting ceremony was followed by inauguration of the check- in counter marked by a symbolic ribbon cutting. The airline felicitated the first guest to check in by handing over a boarding pass and by a floral presentation.

The airline’s first flight to Manchester 9W 130, departed on schedule from Mumbai at 0230 hrs, operated by its modern wide body Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The flight arrived at Manchester’s Terminal 2 at 0755 hrs (Local time). The return flight, 9W 129 departed from Manchester at 0935 hrs (Local time) and arrived at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 at 0040 hrs.

Since announcing the new service in May this year, the airline has been working to strengthen additional connectivity choices for guests arriving in Manchester, who can now connect onwards to North America and Europe or even within the UK, via flights with Jet Airways’ partner carriers including Virgin Atlantic, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Air France and other interline partners. Jet Airways’ guests and those of certain partner carriers will also be able to enjoy mutual earn and burn of miles on each other frequent flyer programmes as per agreement between the respective airlines.

Conversely, guests flying via Mumbai will be able to access Jet Airways’ network of 46 destinations within India. Similarly, quick connections to beyond points on Jet Airways’ international network such as Bangkok, Colombo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dhaka and Kathmandu, will now be available. Some of the domestic destinations to which the new service will seamlessly connect to from Mumbai include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhuj, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Nagpur, Raipur, Rajkot, Udaipur, and Vadodara.

Jet Airways’ A330-200 aircraft with 254 seats including 18 in Première will operate on this new sector.

The new service will complement the carrier’s existing thrice daily nonstop services between Mumbai – London Heathrow, and a daily service between Delhi – London Heathrow. The launch of the new service comes one year after the airline launched 3 new international services last year on October 29, 2018, to Amsterdam, Paris and London from Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai respectively.

Finnair will wet lease an Airbus A330 aircraft and crew from Air Italy for its Chicago and Miami routes for the period of October 12-31, 2019.

One of Finnair’s long-haul aircraft was damaged at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on September 25 when a high loader accidentally hit it. With the wet lease from Air Italy, Finnair ensures that flights to Chicago and Miami can be operated normally while the damaged aircraft is being repaired.

Air Italy aircraft and crew will be operating Finnair flights to Chicago and Miami as follows:

All flights between Helsinki and Chicago (AY09/AY10) from Oct 12 to Oct 29. Finnair has four weekly return flights between Helsinki and Chicago, the flight days are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Five return flights between Helsinki and Miami (AY07/AY08) on the following dates: Oct 14, Oct 16, Oct 21, Oct 23 and Oct 30.

The wet leased aircraft from Air Italy has 24 full-flat seats in business class and 232 seats in economy class, all with a seat-back inflight entertainment system. With the wet lease, the cockpit and cabin crew come from Air Italy, and the flights will have two Finnair cabin crew members on board to support the delivery of Finnair’s customer service concept.

Finnair contacts customers with bookings on the flights to be operated with the wet leased aircraft directly to inform them of the change in carrier. Customers can cancel their flight or change the departure date due to the change in carrier. Cancellations or changes can be made by contacting Finnair customer service.

International Airlines Group’s (IAG) low cost long-haul airline brand, Level, is expanding its fleet with two additional Airbus A330-200s, for delivery in 2019, taking its total order for the type to seven.

This latest firm order comes less than 12 months after IAG purchased the last batch of three A330-200s. They are configured with 314 seats, 21 premium economy and 293 economy.

Level currently operates two A330-200s from Barcelona, soon to be three, and one from Paris Orly, where it commenced services earlier this month. A second A330-200 will join the Paris fleet later this summer.

Both Barcelona and Paris will receive one of the new A330-200s being delivered in 2019 bringing a total of four aircraft in Barcelona and three in Paris.

Level began operations in June 2017 with two new A330-200s flying from Barcelona to four destinations in the Americas.

The A330 is one of the world’s bestselling, most efficient and versatile widebody aircraft. With best in class operating economics, it is the benchmark product for the growing low cost long-haul model worldwide.

To date the A330 Family has won over 1,700 orders with over 1,370 currently flying with more than 110 operators worldwide. With an operational reliability of 99.4 percent and various product enhancements, the A330 Family is the most cost-efficient and capable widebody aircraft to date.